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Clinton to assure US interest in the Arctic

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will assert U.S. interest in the Arctic this weekend. She is visiting Tromsö in Norway where she will empathize US´s interests in the Arctic.

According to Reuters, a senior Oslo-based diplomat said of Clinton: "Her aim is to emphasize that the U.S. is keeping its eye on the Arctic and remains very keen. Big firms are investing big money and she wants to say 'I can do more than one thing at a time, the world is not just Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq'."

Recently Clinton said that as the Arctic warmed: "It is more important that we put our navigational rights on a treaty footing and have a larger voice in the interpretation and development of the rules. You will see China, India, Brazil, you-name-it — all vying for navigational rights and routes through the Arctic."

Although the United States now recognizes the UNCLOS, which defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of the world's oceans, as a codification of customary international law, it has not ratified it.

Clinton has previously said she wants the US to do so, but it remains in doubt as of yet.

The outcomes of the trip to Tromsö will not be of significant political interest, but Clinton will meet "different key persons on Arctic research."